Innholdsfortegnelse for December/January 2023 i What Doctors Don't Tell You Australia/NZ

COMMENT In 1953, the award-winning and much-lauded American playwright and author Lillian Hellman was called to testify before the Committee on House Un-American Activities (HUAC), chaired by Senator Joseph ("Have you now or have you ever been a Communist") McCarthy. Like many other intellectuals. Hellman was essentially told that she could save her neck by exposing suspected communists among her acquaintances, or go to tria lfor political subversion. Hellman refused to hand over any names—famously announcing, "I cannot and will not cut my conscience to fit this year's fashions"—and also managed to avoid standing trial. But like so many of her friends in the screenwriting and literary community, she was blacklisted from much future work, sustaining enormous financial loss. Twenty years later, Hellman published Scoundrel Time, a detailed memoir of…

WDDTY UPFRONT A healthy lifestyle can almost halve the chances of a stroke even in those whose genetic makeup puts them at a far higher risk. Eating a healthy diet and exercising can combat genetic risk factors that can make a person more likely to suffer a stroke, say researchers from the University of Texas. They tracked the heart health and lifestyles of 11,568 middle-aged peoplefora median of 28 years, and those who followed the American Heart Association's Simple 7 guidelines—eat better, exercise, stop smoking, lose weight, lower blood pressure levels, lower cholesterol levels and reduce sugar intake, usually from processed foods—lowered their stroke risk and lived longer and healthier lives. Even those born with a high genetic risk profile for stroke reduced their risk by as much as 45…

If you're worried about the health of your heart, start drinking green tea. Drinking up to five cups a day for just a month can lower blood-sugar levels, a precursor of type 2 diabetes. One added bonus is that it also lowers inflammation in the gut and reduces symptoms of a leaky gut. Researchers from Ohio State University gave 40 volunteers green tea supplements—rather than the drink itself—that were equivalent to drinking five cups of the tea a day. Twenty-one of the participants had metabolic syndrome, a cluster of symptoms including excess belly fat, high blood pressure, low HDL cholesterol levels and high blood sugar counts that increases the risk of heart disease and diabetes. The other participants were healthy. Both groups took the green tea extract for 28 days…

UPFRONT Homeopathy is more effective than standard antibiotics for treating ringworm (tinea), the infectious skin condition that's common in children living in humid climates. The homeopathic remedy Bacillinum has been tested against griseofulvin, an antibiotic antifungal that is the standard treatment for ringworm, on 49 children in Kenya diagnosed with the condition. After six months of treatment, 63 percent of the children given homeopathy were clear of infection, compared to just 36 percent of those treated with antibiotics, researchers from Homeopathy for Health in Africa discovered. The researchers point out that the homeopathic remedy is inexpensive. It also doesn't have the antibiotic's potential side effects, which can include nausea, vomiting, headache and insomnia. Eur J Integr Med, 2022; 53: 102142…

There are seven key lifestyle changes you can make to lower your chances of developing dementia. Even people who have a higher genetic risk of dementia can still be helped by the changes, say researchers from the University of Mississippi Medical Center. These are the seven factors: 1 BEING ACTIVE EATING A HEALTHIER DIET 2 3 LOSING WEIGHT NOT SMOKING 4 5 MAINTAINING HEALTHY BLOOD PRESSURE LEVELS 6 CONTROLLING CHOLESTEROL LEVELS REDUCING BLOOD SUGAR LEVELS 7 Each factor reduces dementia risk by around 9 percent, the researchers discovered. They assessed 8,823 people with European ancestry and 2,738 people with African ancestry, with an average age of 54 years when the study began. During the 30 years of the study, 1,603 Europeans and 631 Africans developed dementia, but those in the…

A good night's sleep is essential for our health, as everyone knows—and one of the best ways to achieve it is to share your bed with a partner. People who sleep with a partner suffer less insomnia and are less likely to have depression, anxiety and stress, say researchers from the University of Arizona. But people who sleep on their own or with children don't fare so well. They're likely to suffer greater stress and anxiety, and they record lower scores on life and relationship satisfaction measures. The researchers assessed the impact of sleep on 1,007 participants in the Shades (Sleep and Health Activity, Diet, Environment and Socialization) study. Sleep, 2022; 45(supp 1): A4…

Patients should be given aromatherapy treatment before surgery. It halves the risk of using post-op painkillers such as opioids, new research has found. Lavender and peppermint are the best oils to use, say researchers from the University of Pittsburgh, who monitored 350 patients before they had hip replacement surgery. Aromatherapy helps relax the patient; people who are apprehensive before surgery are up to 50 percent more likely to need painkillers afterward. The researchers either gave the patients a skin patch that slowly released essential oils for up to an hour before surgery or gave them a placebo. Although anxiety levels were similar in both groups before surgery, there was a greater reduction in those who had been given the aromatherapy. News release, “Aromatherapy Can Reduce Post-surgical Opioid Use by Half,…

Vaccines are supposed to protect us from getting a disease. But that hasn't been the case with Covid-19, and the MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) jab isn't always preventing children from contracting measles, a new study has discovered. Nearly 8 percent of children who caught measles in Milan, Italy, had been vaccinated, say researchers from the city's Degli Studi university. They investigated 653 cases of measles in the city and Northern Italy. Of these, 51 had been vaccinated. Ten children in the vaccine group reacted so badly to their infection that they needed hospital care. Overall, vaccinated children contracted measles in each of the 20 outbreaks recorded in the region between 2017 and 2021 and were able to pass on the virus in half of the cases. The researchers say that…

Yes, approval of the Covid-19 vaccines was fast-tracked to counter the global pandemic, but safety tests weren't skipped, the official narrative tells us. But new research suggests that drug regulators, such as America's Food and Drug Administration (FDA), failed to follow up with volunteers and didn't record adverse reactions that might have changed public health policy. Moderna's Spikevax and Pfizer's BioNTech mRNA Covid vaccines are both more likely to put you in the hospital with a serious adverse event than to keep you out by protecting against a serious Covid reaction, a new study has found. Researchers headed up by Dr Peter Doshi, editor of the British Medical Journal (BMJ), have analyzed data sets from both companies to reveal that the rate of serious adverse reactions is 10.1 per 10,000…

Remember, Kellogg's found people spend around 37 minutes from getting up to leaving the house for work. Anything less than that, and Anne-Marie Imafidon reckons we'll start the day in a bad mood because we're too rushed. Anything more than the 37-minute average, and we'll start in a good mood, having given ourselves enough time to shower, exercise, eat breakfast and do any other activity we like to do before leaving the house, such as reading a newspaper or meditating. If you really want the actual equation, here it is: Where g = the usual number of minutes we take to get ready; the average is 37 minutes b = minutes spent eating breakfast e = minutes exercising s = minutes showering h = minutes spent sleeping w = the…

Natural sex hormones are made by the gonads (the reproductive glands, ovaries and testicles) as well as by other sex steroids found in tissues such as the liver or fat. Synthetic hormones are made in the laboratory from chemicals structurally similar to endogenous hormones but not identical. Natural hormones work over short periods of time because they are produced in the body at specific times for specific reasons. Synthetic hormones linger in the body because they are artificially introduced rather than endogenously produced and thus have no appropriate “time sense.” Bioidentical hormones are FDA approved and many pharmaceutical companies make them. They are standardized to ensure they deliver just the right dosage of the hormone needed. Bioidentical hormones made from plant sources have some distinct, sometimes even opposite effects compared…

"Sylvie" is a high-powered lawyer, originally from West Africa, living in the northwest of England. She came to see me in her early 50s, very distressed that she was losing focus, starting to forget words and occasionally struggling with spelling (she was not dyslexic). These symptoms were not constant, but they occurred often enough to worry her. The cleverer people are, the sooner they notice the subtle signs of their own cognitive decline. A CT scan gave her a diagnosis of early Alzheimer's disease. As always, I began by wondering about causes. The first cause we found was a simple but devastatingly common (and easily preventable/treatable) one: vitamin D deficiency. When I say deficiency, I mean, in her case, almost a total lack of this important nutrient. Vitamin D should…

Dr Didier Raoult The famous French microbiologist and his colleagues have published scores of papers, including one summarizing the use of hydroxychloroquine early treatment protocols applied to approximately 8,000 patients, with just five deaths, as of sometime in 2021.5 Dr Ben Marble Dr Marble, a Florida family medicine specialist, is the first physician to treat patients in all 50 states. He and his staff have treated 65,000 patients in the early stages of Covid-19 with what he describes as a 99.99 percent survival rate-in the ballpark of six or seven total deaths. Dr Vipul Shah As of June 2021, Dr Shah, a specialist in infectious illness in Gujarat, India, had lost just five out of around 8,000 patients using hydroxychloroquine during the first pandemic wave in India, then ivermectin during…

The current attitudes toward the aging woman are largely diminishing, belittling or patronising, as toxic to us as any environmental pollutants. While men gain eminence as they age, women apparently lose their power and slip into greater irrelevance. Infact, women become more powerful with age, but that power isn't recognized. The two of us think of menopause as the Great Awakener. It's a call for you to wake up—both to who you truly are and to your responsibility for Life. It's a personal initiation that also serves these times in which we're living. Humanity is facing unprecedented pressures and challenges on many fronts: the very future of our planet is at stake. We need to rise to these challenges and bring new, creative responses to seemingly insurmountable problems. Menopause itself…

Some of the Ayurvedic herbs that are helpful for osteoarthritis include Boswellia serrata, Commiphora wightii, Astralagus, turmeric and ginger,1 says Dr Shijoe Mathew Anchery, an Ayurvedic doctor who used to work at the Ananda Spa in the Himalayas. "In Ayurvedic medicine we want to find out where the osteoarthritis is coming from—age, wear and tear, or an imbalance in the body," says Dr Anchery. "For instance, a dosha imbalance may manifest primarily as dryness in the body—such as dry eyes, dry mouth, or constipation, or clicking and creaking sounds in joints, which would eventually lead to a degenerative joint condition." Oils are used both externally and internally to lubricate the body—ghee, olive oil and sesame oil (and sesame seeds) are particularly good for taking internally. "Oil pooling treatment in Ayurveda…

Dr Damien Downing, a specialist in allergy, environment and nutrition, is current president of the British Society for Ecological Medicine, on the editorial board of Orthomolecular Medicine News Service, Chief Medical Advisor of cancer charity Yes to Life (www.yestolife.org.uk), and author of numerous books including The Vitamin Cure for Allergies. Dr Michel Odent, a French-trained surgeon and obstetrician, is a pioneer of the natural birth movement, emphasizing home and water birth. Founder of the Primal Health Research Centre in the UK, he has written some 50 scientific papers and 11 books. Dr Sarah Myhill has worked in the UK National Health Service and private practice since 1981. Honorary Secretary of the British Society for Ecological Medicine for 17 years, she is a frequent lecturer and author of Sustainable Medicine and…

Staying active—even doing the dishes every day— can help us ward off dementia as we age. Exercising, and that's anything from climbing the stairs and walking to strenuous workouts, is the single best way to counter mental decline and reduce your risk of dementia by 35 percent compared to the most inactive people. The second-best activity is doing the household chores every day, such as cleaning and washing, which reduces your dementia risk by 21 percent. The third most beneficial activity is an active social life, with plenty of visits with friends and family; people who remain socially active into older age are 15 percent less likely to develop dementia, say researchers from Sichuan University in China. The researchers analyzed responses from more than 500,000 people in the UK Biobank…

Nearly 20 percent of people needing hospital care have reacted badly to taking multiple prescription drugs. It's a growing problem. In 2004, just 6.5 percent of hospital admissions were the result of polypharmacy, when five or more medications are taken at the same time. Researchers from the University of Liverpool reviewed admissions to hospitals across the city during one month in 2019 and discovered that 16.5 percent were caused by adverse reactions to multiple drugs. Overprescription has been on the rise over the past 25 years, and doctors are routinely prescribing a drug to lower cholesterol, for example, along with remedies for cardiovascular control, diabetes, pain and gastrointestinal problems. Often the patient doesn't need the drug in the first place, and the doctor is not monitoring the patient to see…

Intermittent fasting— going without food and drinking only water for at least 14 hours—can reduce the severity of Covid-19 symptoms. Regular intermittent fasters are far less likely to suffer serious Covid symptoms or need hospital care, a new study has found. Fasting reduces inflammation, and after 14 hours without food, the body stops burning glucose and turns to ketones for energy. The process interferes with the SARS-CoV-2 virus's ability to spread. In a study of 205 patients who tested positive for Covid, 73 said they regularly fasted at least once a month. This group had less severe symptoms and lower rates of hospitalization, say researchers at Intermountain Healthcare, based in Salt Lake City, Utah. Around 60 percent of Utah's population are Mormons, members of the Church of Jesus Christ of…

Taking a walk is one of the best ways to counter knee pain from osteoarthritis. Regular walkers are 40 percent less likely to suffer new frequent knee pain, say researchers led by Dr Grace H. Lo of Baylor College of Medicine. Walking is particularly helpful for those who suffer only occasional pain from their arthritis, but even those who have constant pain can also benefit from the exercise. It could also slow the damage in the joint caused by the osteoarthritis. In addition, walking helps improve cardiovascular health and can reduce the risk of obesity, diabetes and some cancers. Arthritis Rheumatol, 2022; doi: 10.1002/art.42241…

Eating an egg a day is officially good for you. Once demonized as a major cause of heart disease, eggs in fact prevent the problem by increasing "good" HDL (highdensity lipoprotein) cholesterol. Researchers have discovered that regular egg-eaters are far less likely to suffer from heart disease or stroke because they have higher levels of a protein that "builds" HDL cholesterol. A research team from Peking University and Oxford University analyzed blood samples from 4,778 people, of whom 3,401 had cardiovascular disease (CVD). Those who ate eggs in moderation had higher levels of APOA1 (apolipoprotein A1), a building block for HDL cholesterol. Although heart advisory groups have been advocating egg-eating for a while, the Chinese researchers are among the first to explore the biological processes that are started by eating…

Cancer care isn't working in America. Although the US spends twice as much as other wealthy nations on treating the disease, the rate of people dying from cancer is the same as everywhere else. The US spends around $200 billion every year on treating cancer, equivalent to $600 per person, which is double that of 22 other wealthy countries. Six countries—Australia, Finland, Iceland, Japan, South Korea and Switzerland—all spend far less than the US and have better cancer mortality rates, researchers at Yale University and Vassar College have discovered. The US also has low rates of smoking, which should have a positive impact on cancer rates, and so the effectiveness of its cancer care system looks even more dismal when compared with nations that have a higher ratio of smokers.…

Two of the most common drugs to treat advanced prostate cancer increase the risk of serious heart problems that need emergency care. One of the drugs, abiraterone, raises the risk of hypertension, diabetes or heart problems by 77 percent, and enzalutamide increases the risk by 22 percent. These effects were found in men who were also taking hormone therapy for prostate cancer, com pared to taking hormone therapy alone. The drugs increase the risk of needing emergency care or a stay in the hospital, say researchers from Michigan Medicine at the University of Michigan. Although the drugs had passed all the safety trials, the patients in the trials differed from those in this study, and the Michigan team suspects the trials don't reflect the wider patient population. Oncologists have started…

What is it that psychiatrists claim to have known all along that the public and family doctors have never realised? It's that depression has nothing to do with a chemical imbalance in the brain, the widely held theory that describes depressed people as having low levels of serotonin, a neurotransmitter. Although this theory has been accepted by the public since the 1990s, a major review has recently established that it's not true: people suffering from chronic depression have similar levels of serotonin as healthy people. The researchers, led by Joanna Moncrieff at University College London (UCL), reviewed 17 studies that had involved more than 160,000 people and concluded that there was no connection between depression and low levels of the chemical in the brain.1 Other researchers have been saying similar…

Adrenal glands are responsible for producing several hormones daily that are used throughout the body. When your adrenal glands become fatigued, it can trigger other health problems, starting with a hormone imbalance. Since your adrenal glands are so important to overall body function, it's common for adrenal fatigue to become noticeable in several areas of your life, although you may not be sure exactly what is happening internally. The most common adrenal disorder can occur even if you aren't physically ill; instead, it seems more stress-related. Symptoms are commonly autoimmune reactions, so for some people it can be hard to diagnose. When the autoimmune system starts working on overdrive, it begins attacking healthy tissue because it mistakenly suspects that the body is being attacked by a threat. This disorder is…

Something is wrong with human reproduction. Not only did the "population bomb” environmentalists warned us about fail to blow, but humanity is now facing a population implosion like nothing in history. Birthrates have plummeted over recent decades to crisis levels, below replacement level in America, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Denmark, France, Italy, Japan—just about every westernized country where economies are beginning to strain under aging demographics. They are dropping in countries with traditionally high levels, like India and China, too. It’s not just that fertility has fallen because women are choosing to delay childbirth and have smaller families. It’s that more and more young people in countries worldwide are unable to conceive or bring a baby to term when they want to, and the problem seems to be getting…

If you decide to eschew hormone therapy of any variety, Dr Sharon Stills’ go-tos are maca root (aka Peruvian ginseng, though it’s not in the ginseng family), dong quai (aka Angelica sinensis or female ginseng) and Leonurus (aka Leonurus japonicus, used in Chinese herbal medicine). “If you don’t have enough estrogen and your estrogen levels are taking a roller coaster ride, one sign will be heart palpitations. During perimenopause, for imbalanced estrogen levels, Leonurus is great for that. Estrogen also produces serotonin, so if someone’s depressed and needs support, you want to think about 5-HTP, a supplement made from the seeds of the plant Griffonia simplicifolia,” she says. Diet Depending on what kind of hormone supplementation you need, consider designing your diet around different hormone-promoting foods. To promote estrogen eat…

Sandra," aged 33, came to see me wearing a mask (pre-pandemic) because the London air and other people's perfume made her feel terribly ill. She needed me to turn off the light in the consulting room because even though it wasn't fluorescent, it hurt her eyes and head, a condition called photophobia. She lay on the examination couch for much of the session because she was so exhausted. She warned me that she might not remember much of what I said during the consultation, so her husband "Trevor" took notes. "And I was completely fit and healthy a year ago!" she said miserably. Trevor confirmed this. "Never seen her have a day off sick in her life. And she went jogging in the park most mornings, didn't you, love?" "I…

During the CT scan for the stroke, doctors discovered that Erika also had cancer on the base of the tongue, resulting in swelling around her jaw and visible lesions in her throat. She immediately adopted the following protocol, besides eating a diet of exclusively fresh, organic, local foods plus prebiotics like fermented and pickled vegetables. Morning Glucan Particle (ImmunotiX 500) from her chiropractor Organic freshly made apple/carrot/celery juice: 12 oz Frankincense oil: Young Living, 5 drops in a capsule Ginseng: 1 vial Red Panax extraction, Ultra Strength Carnivora extract: 2 droppers from carnivora.com OncoPLEX ES (Broccoli) from her chiropractor Vitamin B complex from The Synergy Company Garden of Life organic raw probiotics Noon Organic freshly made apple/carrot/celery juice: 12 oz Afternoon Glucan Particle (ImmunotiX 500), with a glass of water…

If you’re wondering why the development of a vaccine has anything to do with the hydroxychloroquine treatment, then it’s vital to understand a few important details about Emergency Use Authorizations (EUAs). The Covid vaccines were allowed to be administered because they were given an EUA. However, according to the FDA, an EUA may be granted only if there is “no adequate, approved, and available alternative to the candidate product for diagnosing, preventing, or treating the disease or condition.” In other words, an EUA is possible only if there is no other safe, effective treatment. Therefore, hydroxychloroquine-and later ivermectin-had to be defeated.…

WDDTY FAMILY HEALTH You go to the doctor with persistent pain or swelling in your joints and you may have an X-ray or an MRI scan. The diagnosis is osteoarthritis. So, what happens next? Provided you are not in chronic pain, you may be told that this is a normal part of the aging process, and if you're lucky, the doctor will give you some lifestyle tips. At this point you have to take the bull by the horns and find out how you can maintain your mobility and prevent chronic inflammation and pain. Taking charge and managing your osteoarthritis are really the keys to a hopeful future. Here are the herbs and foods with the best evidence for endin`g pain and swelling, which you can take as supplements or…

These recipes have copious amounts of turmeric and ginger. Turmeric is one of the new superfoods—in everything from turmeric lattes to golden milks and turmeric tea available in well-known coffee shops. Ginger hasn't ever received the acclaim it deserves as a healing plant. The active ingredient in ginger is gingerol, which has powerful anti-inflammatory properties, so if it is to your taste, it's well worth drinking and cooking with ginger. It is also a warming herb and said to improve the circulation. In Ayurvedic medicine it's eaten widely in winter; the principle is to relate the appropriate type of food eaten to the season. Be aware that turmeric is used as a natural dye and will end up coloring your kitchen surfaces, your hands and your clothes bright yellow if…

Industry lobbying is changing public health messages You can't trust anyone these days,as no eagle-eyed WDDTY reader needs reminding. We need to treat the advisory guidance we get from our health authorities with more than an ounce of skepticism—yes, even guidance from that most august agency of them all, the World Health Organization (WHO). Depending on where you've been sitting over the recent Covid epidemic,you may conclude either that the WHO played a reasonable game in advising on the best measures to protect us or that its advice was partial and hysterical. A new report has discovered that the more skeptical of you are top of the class: the WHO's guidelines are influenced—or, more exactly, dictated—by vast commercial interests. Former President Trump got a whiff of this and stopped US…

Time to embrace women's aging As a woman in early perimenopause, I read your article about HRT online (in print in this issue) with great interest. It's a bit disheartening when it turns out that a long-touted solution isn't a solution after all. Trading irritability, night sweats and low libido for a higher risk of breast cancer and lethal blood clots doesn't sound like an even trade in the least. I can't help wondering if a major portion of the true motivation for such "solutions" (beyond the profit motive) is a form of misogyny—a desire to keep women in a younger stage of life for as long as possible, as if we are worth less as we age. Maybe it's time to leave this mentality behind and embrace every stage…

Mindfulness meditation can help ease your pain. The technique can reduce pain intensity by as much as 32 percent, a new study has discovered—and even people who haven't meditated before can quickly reap these benefits. The key is in not associating with the pain, but instead observing it as if it was happening to someone else, say researchers from the University of California at San Diego. They tested the benefits of mindfulness on a group of 40 volunteers, half of whom were taught the technique while the others were told just to relax. When a painful heat was applied to the leg, the mindfulness group reported a 32 percent reduction in pain intensity and a 33 percent reduction in unpleasant feelings about the pain, compared to the relaxation group. Brain…

Why do some people end up with dementia and others don't? One big factor could be their diets, and especially the amount of processed food they eat. For every 10 percent rise in the amount of processed food and drink in our diets, our risk of dementia increases by 25 percent, say researchers from Tianjin University in China. They analyzed the results of 72,000 people who participated in the UK Biobank study. The participants were aged 55 and older, and during an average of 10 years of follow-up, 518 developed dementia. Of these, just 105 of the 18,021 who consumed the least amount of processed foods and drink every day—around 9 percent of their overall diet—developed dementia during the lifetime of the study. By comparison, among the 18,000 consuming the…

Taking very high doses of B6 supplements lowers anxiety in a month. People who take 100 mg of the vitamin—a level that's 75 times greater than the RDA (recommended daily allowance)—report lower generalized and social anxiety, say researchers from the University of Reading in the UK. The vitamin supports GABA, a neurotransmitter that blocks impulses between nerve cells in the brain, and it's been linked to healthier brain activity and dampened "neural excitation," which can be seen in cases of epilepsy and chronic pain. The researchers gave high-dose vitamins B6 and B12 to 478 people who suffered from anxiety or depression. B6 was the most effective at reducing anxiety, although B12 was also starting to show some positive results when the study finished after a month. Vitamin B6 is also…

The major theory of the cause of Alzheimer's disease—that it's caused by plaques in the brain—has been thrown into question by concerns that the originating research may have been fraudulent. Researchers from the University of Minnesota may have tampered with brain scans of laboratory mice that seemed to indicate that those with the greatest brain impairment also had the highestlevel ofa plague derivative they called amyloid beta star 56 (AB*56). Since the research was published in 2006, drug companies have spent billions of dollars in developing drugs that combat the buildup of the plaques, sticky deposits of the protein amyloid beta (AB). Ironically, a pair of neuroscientists who were also short sellers— speculators who profit when a share price falls—asked neuroscientist Matthew Schrag to investigate the science behind Simufilam, the…

A Covid-19 vaccine is supposed to keep you out of the hospital—but it could be more dangerous than the virus itself. You're more likely to end up in the hospital from a serious adverse reaction to one of the main Covid vaccines—Pfizer's or Moderna's mRNA vaccines—than from the virus, a new analysis has discovered. Reviewing safety data for the two vaccines, BMJ editor Peter Doshi led a team that discovered the vaccines were twice as likely as the virus to require hospital care. The absolute risks from the vaccines were 12.5 ser ous adverse reactions per 10,000 shots (0.12 percent), while serious reactions to the virus itself that needed hospital care were around 6.4 per 10,000 cases (0.06 percent). The rate of serious adverse reactions wasn't picked up by America's…

As if we didn't have enough health risks to contend with, researchers have come up with another one— being tall. Researchers estimate that black and white people who are taller than 5 feet, 9 inches, have a higher risk of atrial fibrillation (irregular heartbeat), peripheral neuropathy (nerve damage) or circulatory problems. Tall people are also more likely than other people to suffer from cellulitis, skin abscesses, chronic leg ulcers, varicose veins and thrombosis. On a more positive note, they are less likely to suffer from coronary heart disease, high blood pressure (hypertension) and high cholesterol. Tall people's health problems have much to do with the simple fact that blood has farther to travel, say researchers from the US's Veterans Affairs Eastern Colorado Health Care System. They based their findings on…

Having a positive outlook increases your chances of living beyond the age of 90. Researchers from Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health and other universities have assessed the impact of optimism on longevity in a study that involved nearly 160,000 participants in the Women's Health Initiative. Optimism appears to have a direct influence on longevity even after healthy lifestyle factors, such as regular exercise and eating well, have been ruled out. The most optimistic were 10 percent more likely to live beyond the age of 90 than were the most pessimistic, and optimists were likely to have a 5.4 percent longer life span. Most of the women were black or from other ethnic groups, and the results are especially significant because these communities usually have poorer longevity than…

Despite the threat of antibiotic-resistant superbugs, one research study examined insurance claims data for 2.8 million children over two years and discovered doctors gave the drugs inappropriately nearly a third of the time. Many of the children suffered side effects of the antibiotics—such as diarrhea and skin rashes—which cost $74 million to treat, say researchers from Washington University School of Medicine. Doctors prescribed antibiotics to treat viral infections—such as ear infections without pus, bronchitis, flu and colds—although they are designed for bacterial infections, the researchers said. Over a two-year period, the researchers discovered prescriptions for antibiotics had been given inappropriately to children aged six months to 17 years. "Sometimes parents think that the worst that could happen is that the antibiotic just won't help their child, but antibiotics are not…

Covid vaccines linked to serious nervous disorder Covid vaccines could increase the risk of Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS), a serious neurological disease, by as much as 40 percent. AstraZeneca's Vaxzevria and the Johnson & Johnson and Janssen Covid jabs have both been linked to the raised risk, and it's suspected that the "Trojan horse" delivery system they all employ is responsible. Similar technology is also used in most childhood vaccines, such as the MMR, and GBS is a recognized adverse reaction to those. GBS is most likely to happen within two to four weeks of getting a Covid jab, say researchers from University College London, who analyzed countrywide data collated by the National Health Service. There were 140 cases of GBS during a two-month period, when usually there are around a…

Perhaps you're not sleeping well—but perhaps your difficulties are more centered around the start of the day. Some 60 percent of adults don't get their optimum eight hours of sleep, and it's little wonder with the rushed and stressful lives we lead. Then there's getting up in the morning; even if we have slept well, many of us don't leave for work in the best of moods. There can be a multitude of reasons we're not at our best in the morning, and researchers have cited hormones, diet and stress as some of the prime suspects. According to a study commissioned by Kellogg's, a round 29 percent of us, nearly one in three, wake up in a bad mood at least twice a week. Whether you don't get enough sleep…

With all the focus on the theory that estrogen deficiency is the culprit behind the prevalence of AD in women, and with the drug industry chomping at the bit to profitably promote synthetic HRT as a preventative, no one seems to be looking at other causative factors behind AD’s sex bias. Many lifestyle differences between women and men could account for the predominance of women with AD, such as the use of antidepressants (SSRIs like Prozac). Far more women use and are prescribed them than men,1 and the use of antidepressants has been linked to the development of dementias, including AD.2 For almost 70 years, the diet soda and artificial sweeteners market has directly targeted women, far and away their main consumers. Ingestion of these substances has been linked to…

Viruses causing pneumonia, bronchitis and other upper respiratory conditions are common in the medical field. We expect these viruses to be ordinary. In most cases of viruses, we treat the patient with what is considered a classic protocol. Then, within a week to 10 days, the patients improve and life goes on as usual. But the Covid virus was anything but ordinary-like nothing we have ever seen or experienced. We just didn’t realize it at the time. On January 24, 2020, patient samples obtained in Wuhan allowed the SARS CoV2 virus to be identified and characterized for the first time. In those early days, there was no known effective treatment. In fact, many people were simply being told to go home from the hospital and “wait it out”-and only to…

Here is our most updated and successful protocol to date. Drug and supplement dosages: • Hydroxychloroquine—200-mg tabs • Zinc sulfate—220 mg (or zinc elemental 50 mg) • Doxycycline—100 mg • Azithromycin—500 mg • Ivermectin — 3-mg tabs • Aspirin—325 mg tabs • Vitamin D3—5,000 IU Day 1 • Hydroxychloroquine, two tabs twice a day • Zinc sulfate capsule or tab twice a day with food • Doxycycline capsule twice a day with food or Azithromycin tab once per day • Ivermectin 12-18 mg on Days 1-3 • Aspirin 325 mg • Vitamin D3 5000 IU daily for full 30 days Days 2-5 • Hydroxychloroquine tab three times a day • Zinc sulfate capsule or tab twice a day with food • Doxycycline capsule…

In 2014, without warning at the age of 75, I suddenly developed severe pains in my left knee. After a general practitioner visit and an X-ray, I was diagnosed with the onset of osteoarthritis and was told it was age related. My GP told me the condition was chronic and irreversible. He said the treatment was painkillers, then stronger painkillers, followed by, if necessary, injections into my knee, and ultimately an operation using keyhole surgery. I told him I did not want any of these options and he repeated that the condition was irreversible. I decided to research diet as a viable option and purchased a book by Margaret Hills, then paid for a private online consultation. Because the suggested diet change seemed highly plausible and a much more attractive…

Q Our 11-year-old dog Peanut seems to be showing signs of senile dementia, such as waking up at odd hours, soiling and staring into space often. Our vet said she is just aging. Can we do anything to slow this process? A According to the BSAVA Manual of Canine and Feline Behavioural medicine, CDS or cognitive dysfunction syndrome is a neurodegenerative disorder of senior dogs and cats that is characterized by gradual cognitive decline and increasing brain pathology. Due to the similarities between CDS in dogs and Alzheimer's in humans,dogs are used as models to study human brain aging. The process of aging brings about progressive and irreversible changes in body systems, resulting in behavioral changes. According to the Merck vet manual, 30 percent of dogs 11-12 years old and…

A new study claims statins don't cause muscle pain Great news! All those aches and pains you've been suffering while taking a cholesterol-lowering statin had nothing to do with the drug after all. No, it was because you're getting older and researchers have verified that the elderly suffer from—yes, you guessed it—aches and pains. Then there are always those difficult patients who blame the drug when there's nothing wrong with them at all, but frankly they are troubled souls, and we should move swiftly on. "There's no doubt that aging does increase your risk of experiencing pain," explains Prof. Colin Baigent at the University of Oxford. He's director of the Medical Research Council Population Health Research Unit,so he should know. Colin wears many a hat, and he is also the…